The Science of Addiction: Here's Your Brain on Drugs

Addiction comes in many forms - trapping millions across the globe in a vicious cycle of desire, bingeing, and withdrawal. With the latest research on how the brain works, scientists are challenging the notion that addiction represents some kind of moral failing. They’re focusing instead on developing new methods of treatment.

To understand addiction, it’s helpful to begin with the brain’s elaborate reward system, built around a chemical called dopamine. When we do something that helps us survive, like eating, socializing, or procreating, the brain rewards us with a blast of dopamine across our cerebral circuitry, which we experience as pleasure.

Drugs override the natural flow of dopamine and, in the process, “hijack” our reward system. Find out how addiction comes about, and explore the latest innovations for its treatment, in this animated video. For more, you can read the entire September 2017 story.

The Science of Addiction: Here's Your Brain on Drugs

Addiction comes in many forms - trapping millions across the globe in a vicious cycle of desire, bingeing, and withdrawal. With the latest research on how the brain works, scientists are challenging the notion that addiction represents some kind of moral failing. They’re focusing instead on developing new methods of treatment.

To understand addiction, it’s helpful to begin with the brain’s elaborate reward system, built around a chemical called dopamine. When we do something that helps us survive, like eating, socializing, or procreating, the brain rewards us with a blast of dopamine across our cerebral circuitry, which we experience as pleasure.

Drugs override the natural flow of dopamine and, in the process, “hijack” our reward system. Find out how addiction comes about, and explore the latest innovations for its treatment, in this animated video. For more, you can read the entire September 2017 story.